Impacts on freshwater macrophytes produced by small invertebrate herbivores: Afrotropical and Neotropical wetlands compa
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PRIMARY RESEARCH PAPER
Impacts on freshwater macrophytes produced by small invertebrate herbivores: Afrotropical and Neotropical wetlands compared M. Celeste Franceschini . Kevin J. Murphy . Isabel Moore . Michael P. Kennedy . Fedra S. Martı´nez . Frank Willems . M. Laura De Wysiecki . Henry Sichingabula
Received: 25 October 2019 / Revised: 14 July 2020 / Accepted: 17 July 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract We compare invertebrate herbivory upon 13 macrophyte species in freshwater wetland systems located in two global ecozones, the Afrotropics and Neotropics, in the context of biotic and environmental factors influencing these wetlands. The two ecozones are climatically similar regions, with similar water chemistry, but experience contrasting grazing and disturbance pressures from large mammalian herbivores. Our results for macrophytes show that small invertebrates removed significantly more lamina Handling editor: Andre´ Padial
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-020-04360-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. C. Franceschini (&) F. S. Martı´nez Laboratorio de Herbivorı´a y Control Biolo´gico en Humedales (HeCoB), Centro de Ecologı´a Aplicada del Litoral, CECOAL-CONICET-UNNE, Ruta 5, km 2.5, 3400 Corrientes, Argentina e-mail: [email protected]
biomass per leaf in Neotropical macrophytes (6.55%) than Afrotropical ones (4.99%). Overall, the results indicate that underestimation of up to 15.6% of leaf biomass may occur if plant tissue removal by invertebrate herbivores is not included in estimates of plant biomass. Regarding the contrasting grazing and disturbance pressures from large herbivores influencing these wetlands, seven mammal species (especially the Black Lechwe antelope, Kobus leche) were observed impacting macrophytes in the Afrotropical wetlands, while in the Neotropics, only much smaller rodents, capybara, (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) were sporadically observed. We discuss the relevance of results for invertebrate herbivory in the context of both the methodological approach and the importance of large mammalian herbivores as biotic factors M. L. De Wysiecki Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo (FCNyMUNLP), 1900 La Plata, Argentina H. Sichingabula Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia
K. J. Murphy I. Moore University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK M. P. Kennedy Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, England, UK F. Willems Kasanka Trust, Kasanka National Park, P.O. Box 850073, Serenje, Zambia
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Hydrobiologia
additionally impacting macrophyte populations in these subtropical to tropical wetlands. Keywords Herbivorous mammals Freshwater ecosystems Grazing damage Tropics
Introduction Historically, both the abundance of herbivores and the influence of herbivory (produced by invertebrates and larger grazing animals) have been little considered as
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